This invention relates to an information retrieval system and in particular relates to an architecture that inherently enhances the ability to intuitively obtain the highest quality information from a database locationally organized in a preferred, three-dimensional lattice. The constructed architecture comprises a semantic logic structure that in the preferred arrangement forms a micro computer having a processing structure with an inherent philosophical bias for locating and retrieving data in which the physical architecture of a distributed memory system parallels the visual or conceptual architecture of the logic structure. In its preferred embodiment the structured database is contained in a portable, personal deck, similar in configuration to a "smart card" that can be slotted into a computer console linked to a larger data net. The portable deck, by selection of the data forming the base and location of the data in the structure of the base, is intended to be an optimized construct that is personal to a particular user or user group.
This invention relates in general to the visual mnemonic icon system described in this inventor's patent entitled, Database Management Enhancement Device, U.S. Pat. No. 4,859,187, issued Aug. 22, 1989. That patent utilizes the playing card metaphor to describe a system using hierarchical sets of icons arranged in a two dimensional matrix. In that system, a mnemonic association is made between a discrete icon card and a select record, and a mnemonic interrelationship is made among selected records by the particular arrangement of cards in the displayed array.
The function of that system was in part to permit inspection of information in two dimensional arrangements on a blackboard field instead of in serial, one dimensional arrangements as is customary for books, reports, card files, and other common information composites.
Current trends in computer technology appear directed to unlimited availability of memory. Small, solid state memory cards having 8 megabytes of memory are commercially available. Inevitably, the same size card will carry 8 gigabytes or more of memory. With such increases in memory, massive quantities of multimedia information can be stored on hand, and personal data organization will be key to fast access, particularly of repetitively used items. The principles herein described may also be applied to accessible on-line databases or other large repositories of information. To retrieve data items expeditiously, parallel processing structures will be required to search multiple paths for real time queries.
At some point in the size of a database, the very physical architecture employed in design of the memory chips will affect how information is marshalled in real time systems. When multi-variant logic and fuzzy logic are used in searching and retrieving quality information in a comprehensive, deep memory database the integrity of the recovered information can be in substantial part, affected by the throughput time. As throughput time ultimately depends on the physical mechanisms designed to store the information, then actual physical loci is as important as the memory tag that identifies and qualifies the information. A memory tag in a fuzzy logic system may include discriptors that not only identify and classify but grade or weigh the information and may interact with real time retrieval by automated delay. Thus, low-grade information in competition for early throughput with more difficult to access and more time consuming to read, high-grade information might deliberately be delayed. Of course, properly tagged high grade information can be programmed to throughput a messenger with an abstract on a calling card. Ultimately, what information reaches the user first may well affect the user's judgment. The sequence of information items may well be as important as the informational content of the items.
Ideally, consistency is desired among the sensory network that is perceived by the user, the semantic network that establishes the logic of data organization and retrieval, and the mechanical storage network that physically locates data in a memory structure. This consistency enhances the integrity of recovered information and increases the confidence of the user, that indeed, the sought for information has in fact been recovered, and the recovered information is likely to be the best information available from the data net scoured.
In the referenced patent it was noted that the physical location of data need not be altered when organizing or rearranging screen formatted information. In such real-time situations involving modest quantities of data, delays in data acquisition keyed to symbolic display codes, is not noticeable or is tolerable. However, in amassing sufficient data to challenge a Turing test, the timing of data availability to carry on a real-time conversation, and the instant evaluation of data to determine its worth in a continuing, rational and meaningful conversation, are equally as important. These two factors determine whether topics of conversation change, for example, when sought for information is unavailable, or when, information slow to return should be forgotten, or if later obtained, injected spontaneously into the conversational scheme. Therefore, fuzzy logic systems are needed to evaluate information, and, heuristic structures are needed to marshal information. This disclosure does not attempt to unravel the details of the soft code scripting of the data stream, but rather to present conventions for standards of computer architecture from which scripting will logically follow.
While innovative parallel processing structures have been previously proposed such as the well-known, hypercube array, or the two dimensional grid array, these structures seek mathematical elegance and simplicity with limitations inherent in their structures. It is well know that elegant solutions promote efficiency in both operation and understanding. However, mathematical elegance should not be the sole criteria in the design of a semantic net, or in fact, the construction of hardware architecture. Intuitive and humanistic values may legitimately be a part of the hardware architecture. An example of integration of intuitive values is found in the novel invention, "Computational Origami" of Alan Huang, U.S. Pat. No. 4,943,909. That patent, incorporated herein by reference, discloses the type of multiprocessor system herein proposed and the type of processor elements contemplated. Processor elements range from simple nand gates to chip computers. In Huang's patent a flexible architecture borrowed from the art of origami is proposed which allows a matrix of processors to be virtually folded like paper enabling localized replication of real surfaces, for example the wings of a plane.
In recognizing humanistic values, a unity of left-brain/right-brain perspectives can be achieved in a William Gibson, Wintermute/Neuromancer style machine. Any loss of mathematical efficiency is more than made up by intuitive short-cuts that are part of a collective consciousness. While the system described herein has a Western philosophical bias, it can nevertheless be tailored to Eastern philosophies by Jungian style, archetype transformations.
As information proliferates it degrades and a primary object of this invention is to return to the individual user a powerful tool to retrieve information in which the user can place a high degree of trust.
The astrophysicist, Roger Penrose, appreciated that parallel computers were most like the human brain. In The Emperor's New Mind, he defined consciousness as a means of conjuring up the appropriate judgments. Upon elaborating that this was not some form of magical "guessing," he stated, " . . . it is this ability to devine (or `intuit`) truth from falsity (and beauty from ugliness!), in appropriate circumstances that is the hallmark of consciousness."
In attempting to assemble some type of collective consciousness, a system is devised that is rich in traditional western conventions to bridge the gap between art and science. An artificially intelligent machine, to have human-like intelligence, must be intuitive. The function of this invention is to devise a computer architecture that integrates classical formats for western thought and heirarchical classification into a semantic system adapted to information management. The architecture is designed to facilitate development of a symbolic language useable by computer neophytes and automated systems.